The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 81, No. 18, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 30, 1998 Page: 2 of 10
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The North Texas Daily
Wednesday, September 30,1998
The North Texas Daily
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Onlooker failure to act rapped
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Editorial: (940) 565-2353
Advertising: (940) 565-2851
Mailing Address: NT Box 305280, Denton, TX 76203-5280
Editorial
Internship proves right job fit
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Voter registration
Would-be voters must meet Saturday deadline
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VoteD
Online at: www.ntdaily.com
E-mail: dailymail@ntdaily.com
Ellen Schroeder
-Managing Editor
I
Commentary
Page 2
Robert Snoddy
-Columnist
He's just a college student, the same as you and me,
struggling under the burden of a heavy class load while
trying to balance a somewhat meaningful social schedule.
However, David Cash, a 19-year-old sophomore at the
University of California at Berkeley, probably won't be
loosing much sleep over his grade-point average; it's like-
ly he'll have to worry more about what his peers are plot-
ting against him than about filling up his social calendar.
You see, Cash has been dubbed a Bad Samaritan, the
unconscionable collegian, because of something he didn't
do about a crime he didn't commit.
Last year Cash's father took David and his son's best
friend, Jeremy Strohmeyer, to Las Vegas for a vacation.
While in a video arcade, the two men came across 7-year-
old Sherrice Iverson. According to the casino's surveil-
lance tape, Strohmeyer followed Iverson into the women's
restroom, and Cash followed the two shortly thereafter.
Here is where the situation becomes downright despi-
cable. As Cash tells it, he walked into the restroom and
saw Strohmeyer assaulting the girl in one of the stalls.
Realizing what was going down, Cash tapped Strohmeyer
on the head and gave a look for his best friend to stop,
but didn't do anything further to stop him.
Finally, Cash walked out of the restroom, playing obliv-
ious to what he'd already seen and what was going to
occur in that casino ladies' aroom.
"It wasn't something I wanted to sit around and watch
materialize," Cash told "60 Minutes" reporter Ed Bradley
in an interview that aired Sunday.
As if his previous non-involvement wasn't enough,
when Strohmeyer came out of the bathroom nearly a half
hour later and confessed to his best friend that he'd killed
the girl, Cash decided against reporting the crime.
Had it not been for some people back in the two boys'
hometown who recognized the pair from the surveillance
tape, Strohmeyer likely would have never been caught.
In the end, Strohmeyer received a life sentence without
parole, Cash now roams the Berkeley campus, having
never been charged fok anything connected to the murder
of Sherrice Iverson.
493
A LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Besides the tricks of the trade, the job offered me
insight into human nature.
A mistake offered me a rare chance to hear what people
really think about reporters. I called a man to grab a cou-
ple of quick comments for a story. A woman, probably his
wife, answered the phone.
"Hold on a sec. I've got a call on the other line," she
said after I introduced myself.
There was a short pause, and then a click. I heard her
voice.
"There's a reporter on the phone. She wants to ask you *
(blah blah.) I told her she could call you this afternoon."
. "NO!" a man bellowed. I don't want her calling me!"
"But I told her I would give her your cell phone num-
ber," the woman said, exasperated. I recognized the
mounting tension in her voice. I speak the same way
Staff
Editor: Garth Lewis
Advertising Manager: Michelle Higgins
Managing Editors: Jessica Burgess, Ellen Schroeder
Commentary Editor: Bonnie Lovell
Sports Editor: Robert Thomas
A&E Editor: Jeff Fielder
Photo Editor: Jacqi Serie
Copy Editor: Nicole Scolaro
Web Editor: Eric Backs '
Features Editor: Courtney Wallace
Graphics Editor: Alan Kennedy
Classifieds Manager: Fredricka Spiller
Advertising Sales: Angela Rieke, James Cruse, Lucas Tesh,
Kristi Kennimer
Columnist/Movie Critic: Robert Snoddy
Writers: Julie Freeman, Robin M. Smith
A&E Writer: Richard Guerrero
Sports Writers: Richard Greene, Chris Roark
Photographers: Gary Payne, Vernon Bryant
Cartoonists: Andy Bowers, Stacey Medler
Advertising Artist: Micah Yarborough
when pesky salespeople call during dinner.
"How do you want me to handle this?" she asked him.
They discussed the "problem" as if I were an unsavory
stray dog sniffing at their legs.
And then, conveniently, the line went dead.
Perhaps it was a carefully thought out ploy to deter me,
or perhaps it was an embarrassing mistake on the part of
the woman, but I found it rather amusing.
I didn't desperately need to talk to the man. I had a list
of about a dozen other people who could give me the
same information. I didn't bother him again.
All-American: 83 times
National Pacemaker: 6 times
Regional Pacemaker: 3 times
The North Texas Daily is published Tuesday through Friday dur-
ing the fall and spring semesters and Thursdays during the summer
sessions, except university holidays and exam periods. The Daily, a
nonprofit newspaper, provides information, commentary and
entertainment for the NT community.
Subscription rate—$20 annually or $10 per long semester and $5
per summer session.
The best gift ever
On one assignment, I had to round up a few fathers in
front of a hardware store and ask, "What was the best
Father's Day gift you ever received?"
Most men don't have time to talk, or so they say, when
you randomly stop them and ask, "Excuse me, do you
have a minute?"
But when you make it known you're not hawking a
state-of-the-art nail-buffing kit for $39.95, they usually
slow down.
And when you ask them about their favorite Father's
Day gift... well, then, you see a huge grin spread across
their face. I could almost see the memories unfolding.
NT offers many chances to get ahead, to get profession-
al experience while in school. Talk to a counselor, talk to
professors, get internship information.
You'll be glad.
do
Commentary Policy
Letters and columns will be edited for grammar, style, space and libel,
but a writer's meaning will not be changed. Letters should be submit-
ted typed with name, classification and daytime phone number. Sub-
missions may be brought to The Daily office, General Academic Build-
ing 117 or sent by mail, E-mail or fax. The editorials are the opinion of
The Daily staff majority. The columns and cartoons are the opinions of
their creators.
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When we were young, summer vacations signaled free-
dom — barefoot days puttering around outside, making
mud pies and biking around the neighborhood.
But as college students, we're old. Old, and in debt. So
summers are spent raking in money — however little that
may be.
This summer, I found a more meaningful job than my
pathetic existence as a restaurant hostess last summer.
I had an internship as a reporter at a local newspaper.
Teachers often extol the benefits of gaining professional
experience while in school. Get an internship, they urge.
Join a business club, make professional contacts.
Well, I did it. And I'm here to say, it's a darn good
thing I did.
Some people return from internships dejected and frus-
trated — knowing they could never really survive a
career in that field. They change their majors and spend a
few extra years in school.
But my experience proved to me I made the right
choice when I picked "journalism" out of the NT under-
graduate catalog.
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Justice served? I think not.
The attorney that prosecuted Strohmeyer explained to
"60 Minutes" the district attorney's office's justification
for letting Cash go unfettered was because "morally bank-
rupt behavior" is not a crime.
The chancellor of UC-Berkeley, in turn, told CBS that
Cash had committed no crime and the university couldn't
take any arbitrary action against the sophomore on the
basis of some moral outrage that people feel.
After all, the chancellor pointed out, Berkeley was the
home of the free-speech movement and is not about to
punish students for exercising the right to free speech.
Pishposh. Not even the most dropped-out hippy from
the '60s would find this non-involvement very groovy.
The majority of Berkeley students are fumed over
Cash's presence at the university, and there’ve been
protests to prove it.
Unfortunately, there aren't and probably never will be
any sort of Good Samaritan laws established to punish
guys like Cash.
Attempting to legislate morality has been a failure in
this country dating back to Prohibition.
I suppose the court of public opinion holds the real ver-
dict for Cash. And the early returns show he will be
viewed as pariah from here on out.
David Cash's actions, or lack thereof, are unscrupulous.
But, it's just another demoralizing example coming from a
society that has quickly de-moralized a good many of its
own moral standards.
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Nov. 3 is election day. There's lots to vote for, including U.S. rep-
resentatives, Texas legislators and the Texas governor.
Perhaps of more obvious relevance, Denton voters will be called
on to decide that ever-important issue: bar closing time. Should
the bar dosing hours stay at 2 a.m. or should they be rolled back
to midnight? The City Council left it up to the voters, so now the
voters need to do their part.
If you want to vote Nov. 3, you must be registered to vote by
Saturday.
Perhaps the easiest way to register to vote is on-line. Just go to
the Rock the Vote site at www.netvote98.mci.com and register.
Or pick up a voter-registration form in University Union 430, fill
it out, sign it and mail it. You don't even need a stamp; postage is
pre-paid. Voter-registration forms are also available at the front
desks of some dorms, and there will be a voter-registration table in
the University Union near the entry to the Food Court from 10
a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday.
To register, you must be at least 17 years and 10 months old and
a U.S. citizen. You will be able to vote 30 days after registering, or
after your 18th birthday, if that comes later. Students can register
to vote in Denton County or in the county where their parents
live.
Voting is a basic responsibility of citizenship, however, far too
many people fail to register or don't bother to vote. Yet decisions
by candidates who are elected and questions decided at the polls
affect you, whether or not you bothered to vote.
If you want to be able to have a beer at a bar after midnight,
register and then vote. If you think bars and restaurants should
stop serving alcoholic drinks at midnight, register and vote.
If none of that convinces you to register and Vote, here's another
reason. If you don't vote, sure, you can still complain — it's a free
country.
And that's exactly why you don't have to vote either. But it's
also the best reason why you should vote.
So register — and then vote.
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The North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 81, No. 18, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 30, 1998, newspaper, September 30, 1998; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1411255/m1/2/: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.